The IPO Buzz: Roaring Back from the Break

Don’t look now, but the IPO Express is pulling into the Wall Street Station – right on time with recent years. This week’s calendar delivers its first IPO about two weeks after the July 4th holiday break. The downtime is in keeping with the recent past and is no reflection of current stock market conditions.

This week’s calendar has eight IPOs on tap and they are expected to raise about $700 million. The pricings start Wednesday evening, July 15, which is on schedule with the past.

In July 2014, the first IPO priced after the July 4th break was on July 15, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. By month’s end, 34 IPOs had come to market.

In July 2013, the first IPO priced after July 4th was on July 12; in 2012, it was on July 18; in 2011 and again in 2010, the first IPO to be priced after the holiday break each year was on July 13. In 2009, it was on July 29 – a reminder that 2009 was not a good year for anybody.

Note: July 2014’s traffic of 34 IPOs exceeded last month’s 28 deals.

A Second Look at June

Some services reported that the June 2015 calendar generated as many as 36 IPOs, which they said made it the busiest month since 1999. That’s not exactly accurate. The total of 36 for June 2015 included some non-IPO deals that fell into these categories:

A few public offerings of companies that moved to the NASDAQ Global Market from the OTCQB, also known as “the pink sheets,” and

A few foreign listed securities that moved from the Euronext markets and Canada to trade in the U.S. capital markets.

That knocked June 2015’s numbers down to 28 and raised the burning question: What was the busiest month since 1999? The answer: August 2000, with 70 IPOs. There were seven other months with over 38 IPOs.

Bargains, Cancer Drugs and Cyber-Security Now back to the present. On this week’s calendar, a few deals are surfacing as “IPOs of interest,” according to the experts. They are: Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Holdings (OLLI – proposed), ProNAi Therapeutics (DNAI – proposed) and Rapid7 (RPD – proposed).

Ollie’s Bargain Outlet is a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based retailer of close-outs, excess inventory and salvage merchandise in categories including housewares, food, books and stationery, bed and bath, floor coverings, toys and hardware. The company offers products under various brands, such as Ollie’s, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, Ollie’s Army, Real Brands! Real Bargains! and Good Stuff Cheap through about 185 outlets located in 16 states. Founded in 2008, Ollie’s reported net income of $6.7 million on net sales of $162.5 million for its first quarter versus net income of $4.2 million on net sales of $134.4 million for the same period a year ago. Bankers plan to price 8.9 million shares at $13 to $15 each on Wednesday evening to trade on the NASDAQ Global Market on Thursday morning.

ProNAi Therapeutics is a Vancouver, Canada-based clinical-stage oncology company. ProNAi is developing a portfolio of therapeutic treatments based on its deoxyribonucleic acid interference (DNAi) technology platform for patients with cancer, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other hematological diseases. Founded in 2003, ProNAi reported a net loss of $8 million on no revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2015, versus a net loss of $2.5 million on no revenues for the same period a year ago. Bankers plan to price 6.7 million shares at $14 to $16 each on Thursday evening to trade on the NASDAQ Global Market on Thursday morning.

Rapid7 is a Boston-based provider of security data and analytics solutions that let organizations implement an active, analytics-driven approach to cyber security. Its cloud-based security data and analytics solutions collect, contextualize, correlate and analyze the security data needed to reduce threat exposures and detect compromise in real time. The company offers services to about 3,500 organizations in 78 countries, including 30 percent of the Fortune 1000. Founded in 2000, Rapid7 reported a net loss of $7.7 million on revenues of $23.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015, versus a net loss of $8.8 million on revenues of $16.7 million for the same period a year ago. Bankers plan to price 6.5 million shares at $13 to $15 each on Thursday evening to trade on the NASDAQ Global Market on Friday morning.

Looking into the week of July 20, the IPO calendar lists two deals aiming to raise about $675 million. But not to worry – the calendar has been known to fill up quickly on Monday mornings.

Stay tuned.

Disclosure: Neither the author nor anyone else on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned, nor do we trade or invest in IPOs. The author and IPOScoop.com staff do not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums), is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.